configure
scripts always include something like the following in the help message:
... By default, `make install' will install all the files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/lib' etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' using `--prefix', for instance `--prefix=$HOME'. For better control, use the options below. Fine tuning of the installation directories: --bindir=DIR user executables [EPREFIX/bin] --sbindir=DIR system admin executables [EPREFIX/sbin] --libexecdir=DIR program executables [EPREFIX/libexec] --sysconfdir=DIR read-only single-machine data [PREFIX/etc] --sharedstatedir=DIR modifiable architecture-independent data [PREFIX/com] --localstatedir=DIR modifiable single-machine data [PREFIX/var] --libdir=DIR object code libraries [EPREFIX/lib] --includedir=DIR C header files [PREFIX/include] --oldincludedir=DIR C header files for non-gcc [/usr/include] --datarootdir=DIR read-only arch.-independent data root [PREFIX/share] --datadir=DIR read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR] --infodir=DIR info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info] --localedir=DIR locale-dependent data [DATAROOTDIR/locale] --mandir=DIR man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man] --docdir=DIR documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/gedit-line-ending-style-plugin] --htmldir=DIR html documentation [DOCDIR] --dvidir=DIR dvi documentation [DOCDIR] --pdfdir=DIR pdf documentation [DOCDIR] --psdir=DIR ps documentation [DOCDIR] Program names: --program-prefix=PREFIX prepend PREFIX to installed program names ...
What I would like to do is add "plugindir", to this section, as in:
... --dvidir=DIR dvi documentation [DOCDIR] --pdfdir=DIR pdf documentation [DOCDIR] --psdir=DIR ps documentation [DOCDIR] --plugindir=DIR Gedit plugin files [LIBDIR/gedit-2/plugins] ...
so that users would be able to pass in --plugindir=...
to the configure script.
How can I do this?
If I'm correct those paths are set in the share/autoconf/autoconf/general.m4 file. The list is hardcoded so it is difficult to insert things in the list. You can add extra help information using the macro
AS_HELP_STRING
. There are some examples that add a plugindir, for example in gstreamer, gimp, but those don't have a configurable plugin directory.Put the following lines in
configure.ac
, near the beginning:Then, in
Makefile.am
, you can refer to the directory like this:I think you are on the right track with AC_SUBST.
Additionally, I think you can modify or extend the --help output of configure with AS_HELP_STRING.
See: http://www.gnu.org/s/hello/manual/autoconf/Pretty-Help-Strings.html